> So I think the following would be handy:
>
> 1. equally usable with either "import * from turtle" or "import turtle"
> imports
> 2. should open with a window covering at least half the screen (the
> current default is too small to be useful)
> 3. should offer some simple configuration choices for things like
> initial size and shape, but mostly rely on reasonable defaults
> 4. should offer a class wrapper so that that one could easily
> instantiate different turtles for a first experience with objects.
> 5. some minor tweaks to make it better behaved when run from IDLE
>
> Does anyone have any feedback on these ideas or any other suggestions
> about how turtle.py might be improved without being fundamentally changed?
>
> Note: this is about turtle.py only, for all its deficiencies. Any
> suggestions to try another library, system, or language will be
> cheerfully, but resolutely, ignored. ;)
>
> Cheers,
> Vern Ceder
Vern,
I would be interested in testing any improved turtle.py package you
come up with.
I used the Python turtle.py package last semester with about 500
first-year university students, and two problems stood out above all
others:
1. The broken interaction between Idle and the turtle package.
2. Poor documentation. To actually understand certain function
calls, it was necessary to read the turtle.py source code.
I agree that your other points would be improvements, but, for my
purposes at least, they are lower priority.
I have another suggestion: rewrite turtle.py so it has a simpler, more
modular internal design. I use it for learning about functional
decomposition and bottom-up programming; the graphics are secondary.
So I would like a less powerful turtle, but one that students can
easily build upon.
Perhaps a BabyTurtle class with the absolute bare primitive methods
could be added, e.g. something like
class BabyTurtle(object):
def forward(self, steps): # ...
def left(self, degrees): # ...
def penUp(self): # ...
def penDown(self): # ...
Toby
--
Dr. Toby Donaldson
School of Computing Science
Simon Fraser University (Surrey)
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